On cleaning reusable water bottles
What are best practices to keep reusable water bottles sanitary?
Any reusable water bottle that sees consistent action will develop a faint odor after many refills. Inevitably there’s a point when you can’t in good conscience refill it until you vanquish that stank. So what should you do?
If you routinely put other beverages in your water bottle, proceed to step one. If not, skip to step two.
Wash it: If your bottle has a narrow mouth, try using tongs to grasp a soapy sponge. Lower the tongs into your water bottle and scrub away! Rinse it out with clean water.
Sanitize it: This will leave your water bottle smelling fresh and brand new. Here’s how:
Bleach is nirvana
Make a sanitizer solution out of bleach and water. Use ¾ teaspoon of bleach per quart (32 oz) of water. (Trust me, there’s no reason to use more bleach than this. This amount will work and it won’t stain anything or hurt your hands)
Pour some solution into the water bottle.
Put the lid on and shake it up so that all surfaces contact the sanitizer.
Pour out the sanitizer and splash some across your bottle’s outside surfaces and the lid, too.
Let your bottle air-dry.There’s no need to rinse off the sanitizer—the bleach will quickly evaporate on its own. But if you do want to rinse it out, wait 60 seconds so the sanitizer can do its magic.
Now give your water bottle a whiff: Ahhhh! Drinking from a freshly sanitized bottle is every bit as good as climbing into new sheets. Cherish the moment.
Last thing: you can use this same process to revive flower vases, food storage jars or any other reusable food vessels that start to get funky.
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